Thursday, November 1, 2018

November

November Morning - Dwight William Tryon

Stepping out of my car yesterday morning at work, I could smell a wood fire. As the day was crisp, clear, and cold - it seemed fitting. Of course, I did look around to make sure the nearby woods weren't on fire. Hey, it happens.

But no, someone in the vicinity had their fireplace going.

As I walked into the building, I decided to pause and look out over the valley before heading into work. Across the way, there was a mist hanging over the water of the Lawton Valley Reservoir. Between me and that mist were two maples with golden foliage, some red mixed in but primarily gold. The morning light touched them just enough to bring out the color.

I took a deep breath of that cold air, almost tasting the wood smoke, savoring what would prove to be a gorgeous New England day. A day which began with a heavy frost which had me scraping the frozen stuff off of my car. While it will become a genuine pain later in the year, for now it was somewhat invigorating.

I don't mind the cold weather as much as some. I grew up here, it's in my bones in more ways than one. (Ask me how my knees feel when a low pressure area is approaching!) So in some ways, I find November to be very exciting. Probably because it reminds me of growing up in Vermont, before it became a failed socialist state. (Damn Ben & Jerry's to Hell, I used to like their ice cream. No more.)

Anyhoo.

In my youth, by Halloween we had maybe had our first snow flurry. The trees were quickly losing their bright leaves and everything was looking very wintry. The days were much shorter, high school football season was over and I had more free time. I like free time, I am a superb idler, Olympic class really.

Halloween is, for me anyway, the commencement of what I call (others do too) the Holiday Season. Halloween, Veteran's Day (though I call it something else and it's a somber day for me in more ways than one), Thanksgiving, then of course, Christmas.

Yes, it's that time of the year that retail outfits try to make up in sales for their performance the rest of the year. Ya know those times of year where the working stiffs aren't willing to spend a fortune on stuff that they don't really need. No, they do that on "Black Friday" and in the days leading up to Christmas.

Thanksgiving does come first by the way, though I understand the need for retail outfits to make money. Provides jobs it does, provides me a place to spend my money on both necessities and fripperies. Still and all, I do love Thanksgiving, gathering with family, gorging on food and beverage, then falling asleep in front of the telly, watching football, which is about the only time of year I do that. Other than the playoffs...

28 comments:

Fall is the best time of the year, mornings there is white in the grass and up on the roof, no humidity causing your sweat to sweat. Snow shovels and snowmelt positioned in the garage for ready deployment.......crisp air walking around the lake and the fading of all that green into yellows, oranges and reds. Course that means less daylight now with the change coming up Saturday night, THAT I don't care for. Just glad to see another change in seasons I am.

We here in the Old North State are enjoying (?) a longer, milder fall with temps today ranging from the mid 70s, low 80s. Doesn't make for a good fall for color. It will continue as long as we are under southern sources of our weather systems. Old man winter is not blowing hard enough from the north, northwest with another wet system from Texas coming in tonight and rain forecast for all day tomorrow. It is going to be hard to enjoy the Brunswick stew season without a real chill in the air, but, I will enjoy every bowl. I remember as a kid, sitting under an open-sided tent, with snow flurries and the smells of the stew which has been cooking all night in extremely large open wood-fired kettles. Many, many churches and organizations sale hundreds of quarts of stew as fundraisers. A true sign that fall is here.

Trifecta Day was yesterday. Little Juvat and Bride are enroute, papers have been submitted (woohoo!) and Mrs J has moved out of her store. As with EVERY move I've ever made, it precipitated heavily yesterday. So the streak is intact. Dwight, sorry your weather is wet, but am very glad it didn't stick around here.

Wow, juvat, sounds like you had quite a day. When I have days like that, I always fall back on what my dad taught me. Throw up from nervousness. Both he and I have thrown up after proposing, buying houses and cars and making major career changes. Whoooo. I live a wild life. Don't know how he did flying a fighter bomber.

Time to get the snow rake out of storage. Glad I'm retired. Nothing like cleaning snow off 100+ vehicles.https://www.autodealersupplies.com//product/Snow-Rake-22171/?product_link=Snow-Rake-22171Wonderful tool for the job.

MB and I managed to enjoy Fall this year.Then we drove home.There was only a hint of color through the early parts of our trip, but we found lots once we crossed the Ohio River, and even more through the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest.It’s a lot warmer here than I remember it as a kid.Last night, sitting out front while passing out treats, it was almost shirtsleeve weather.So far, the only sign of the approach of winter is more geese in the sky.

Today is the first day my sinuses aren't revolting. The weather geeks are predicting the first day of below 70 degree for a high temp on Saturday. Some trees are turning colors, some are dropping leaves, got a whole two trick-or-treaters yesterday. Sure sign that Fall is here.

Now comes the wait for the first 20-30 degree night at 80% humidity with a high wind. A night I have to put my fuzzy outdoor slippers on. Yeah... Fall is here, winter is coming!

There's a lot of things I enjoy about fall. Cool nights, days still warm enough to run comfortably outside, the smell of wood smoke in the air, beautiful tree colors, and my two kids with fall birthdays just to name a few.

But I can't call it my favorite season. For me there's too many endings in fall. Baseball ends. Motorcycle riding season ends. My two most hurtful layoffs both happened in November. Both my maternal grandparents passed away (separated by ten years) in the fall.

But without fall there would be no sleep of winter, and without winter, there would be so much less joy in the renewal and rebirth of spring. Spring is unquestionably my favorite season.

But that's just me. Fall in Rhode Island sounds lovely, may you enjoy it to the maximum.

Fall is my favorite too, but we don't get much here in SanDog. Today was the first day I felt like I should wear a coat, but then again, it'll be 82 by the early afternoon. I need to find another reason to travel to the NE I guess!

I stayed home from work one day in February in my 3rd floor condo in Mission Hills, in order to bail out the window gutters as gale force winds from the south forced inches of rain through my 3 sliding glass doors on that face of the building. I was filling a bucket every 15 minutes as the rain driven into the glass seeped through the cracks nobody cares about in San Diego and flooded my carpets in the living room.